Around The League 2023-2024 Season

Great story Worcester!

Josh Giddey, of the OKC Thunder, is being investigated by the league office for an alleged "inappropriate relationship with an underaged girl".

Giddey just turned 21 in October. The age of the girl is unreported. There is no additional info about details of the relationship.


Bob


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gyso,

That standings clip that you posted is a pretty picture.

It’s extremely early and only a few games have been played but even with a few stumbles, it doesn’t appear the sky is falling. That despite some early panic mongers.

Speaking of hope among problematic results; Go Bills!

NYCelt wrote:gyso,

That standings clip that you posted is a pretty picture.

It’s extremely early and only a few games have been played but even with a few stumbles, it doesn’t appear the sky is falling. That despite some early panic mongers.

Speaking of hope among problematic results; Go Bills!

NYCelt,

Focusing daily on the standings is a fool's errand, but a weekly snapshot shows who's hot that week and who's not.  It is a bonus to be able to look back and see the progression (or regression) of any team, week to week.

We are sitting pretty good at the moment.  Sure, we've had a few "horrible" losses, but so has every other team in the league.  Players have the ability to move on from a bad game, but many fans just cannot.

About those Bills: Good luck with the Eagles, that sounds like a tough nut to crack.

Great story Worcester...the ole adage prevails, what they didn't know certainly didn't hurt them!!!

Yes, Rosalie, it was a funny story.

Now getting back to the Celts. I was worried about the Magic in 2022-23 when they beat us twice. Now I'm terrified of them. Do we have an answer for their young bigs and guards?

We do if we play the way we are supposed to play. Remember, Jrue was out Porzingas got hurt and was not himself.  Now, I see Queda tonight play and get 10 rebounds he was all over the floor. Bought himself some minutes.  If the Celtics stop bombing away and play the way they are capable of, like a “team” we will be ok but the Orlando team is problematic. Hey, they beat Denver the other night too

Well, I sure liked Q's 10 RB's.

Wow Lakers got taken to the woodshed and back. Hit in the mouth right out the gate and never recovered at all.

cowens/oldschool,

Not a good night for the Clips either.  When you are playing against a team that doesn't have Jokic, Murray or Gordon and you lose by 13 or whatever, you suck.  Of course, it was the classic James Harden 4th quarter.  11 points, 4 assists and 2 Ribbies? Time for the Clippers to fully open, grasp and appreciate the gift from PHI that keeps on giving the whole year like the Jelly of The Month Club! To quote another one of my favorite movies of all time, Ocean's Eleven (the remake), "Run...and Hide!" Clips are now 7-9.
Beginning to wonder if Ty Lue has the stomach of an extreme talent/ego massager manager like Phil Jackson.  Right now I'd bet against that.  Next game up for them is @ SAC.  DOH!!  Go ahead and pencil in 7-10.  Definitely record that one!

But you do gotta love the Lakers having their a$$e$ handed to them.  Heck, we only lost by 17 to a POS ORL team....that unfortunately does have our number like you said worcester!  The answer, worcester?  Avoid them in the playoffs!!

db

Dbrown NBA is a funny league, any player can have a monster game getting in their own zone, it’s very entertaining and unpredictable. D’Andre Jordan and Reggie Jackson totally went off. In Laker game, the snail Marcus Morris went off. We beat Sixers without Z and Jaylen in a game Big Al totally neutralized Embid. I still think the matinee effects us for whatever reason. Jaylen had a 2nd half as bad as Paul George’s whole game last night. Get the J’s at their best we should be okay, it will be good test for Joe to figure it out….

Any loss by the Lakers is a good night.  Add to that a complete humiliating dismantling and you have a great evening of entertainment.  However, last night did present a quandary in that a win by LAL would have helped get PHI further off our backs for Friday's game.  They will come in guns ablazin' Friday and we should not take them lightly as they are as good a team as any to draw first blood and scar our unblemished home record.  

db

Early season surprises include the 14-5 Orlando Magic in the East and the 14-4 Timberwolves in the West who are now at the top of the West record wise. Honorable mention goes to the OKC Thunder at 12-6.

Add Pacers to list of improved teams. They have Halliburton and Turner at the 1 and 5. A bunch of young and experienced wings in Hield, Nesmith, Mathurin, Bruce Brown, Toppin who is super athletic. You never know what your going to get from them, but if they’re on your in for a dogfight. Nesmith is shooting 46% from 3.

So why was Naismith bricking in Boston????

He really did not get the playing time to develop his game. Look at Sam, it took a season or so for him to get rolling. He played good defense, I believe he just was a better trade value when they were getting ready to trade for Brogden. His remarks that the Celtics ended up trading him for nothing since Brogden is gone is silly. Brogden brought us Jrue, I would say that was a pretty good trade.. Good luck to the kid, he was someone I wish we could have kept, there was just no place for him here

Thank you, BKN, for answering my plea and putting ORL in their place Saturday night!  That was plenty humiliating.  Hopefully we will blueprint your stellar work and use it against them in our next game.    

db

https://www.insidehook.com/sports/nikola-jokic-walking-triple-double-nuggets

Nikola Jokic Is a Walking Triple-Double
The reigning NBA champ is leading the league in points, rebounds and assists

Though he has yet to reach true superstar status in the U.S. despite winning the NBA title and Finals MVP, Nikola Jokic is doing things on the basketball court that have rarely been seen before. Jokic, who won back-to-back MVPs before finishing as the runner-up to Joel Embiid for the award last season, notched his NBA-leading eighth triple-double of the season on Saturday night and is now leading the league in total points (579), rebounds (255) and assists (196).

Perhaps that should be no surprise as Jokic was the first player in NBA history to lead the entire postseason in total points (600), total rebounds (269) and total assists (186) when he led the Denver Nuggets to the franchise’s first-ever championship last season. The first player selected outside of the top 15 (41st overall) to win both Finals MVP and regular-season MVP, Jokic also leads the league in Efficiency, ahead of Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic.

Perhaps also unsurprisingly, those four players are at the top of the list to win this season’s MVP, behind the clear favorite: Jokic.

The reigning Finals MVP and two-time MVP might actually be better this season. He’s averaging career highs in points and rebounds, his second-highest assists mark, and still shooting 60% eFG (57% from the field, 32% from 3). The Nuggets are outscoring opponents by 11.3 points per 100 possessions with him on the court,” per The Action Network. “Jokic answered every question about him being a worthy three-time winner with a 16-4 dominant playoff run, outplaying Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, sweeping LeBron James, humiliating Anthony Davis, and outclassing Jimmy Butler. He’s widely and nearly unanimously considered the best player in the world for a team that looks like it will easy win more than 50 games.”

Through approximately a quarter of the season (20 games), Jokic is averaging 28.9 points, 12.8 rebounds and 9.8 assists per game while shooting 56.8% from the field and 30.1% from the three-point range. Through 21 games, the Nuggets have gone undefeated at home (9-0) and are 14-7 overall, putting them in third place in the Western Conference. The Nuggets have no shot at winning the NBA’s In-Season Tournament, which continues tonight, as they have already been eliminated, but Denver is one of the favorites to win the championship at +425. Only the Celtics (+370) have better odds to win it all.

What the Celtics don’t have is Jokic, who has shown no sign of slowing down this season despite Denver’s title run and all of the extra effort and time on the court that it required.

bobc33 wrote:... Jokic was the first player in NBA history to lead the entire postseason in total points (600), total rebounds (269) and total assists (186) when he led the Denver Nuggets to the franchise’s first-ever championship last season. The first player selected outside of the top 15 (41st overall) to win both Finals MVP and regular-season MVP, Jokic also leads the league in Efficiency, ahead of Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic.

Perhaps also unsurprisingly, those four players are at the top of the list to win this season’s MVP, behind the clear favorite: Jokic.

There is a hard one to debate against.

SGA could even conceivably work his way in there for semi-long shot MVP consideration, behind Jokic and Embiid.

Thank you CLE for also putting ORL in their place last night!  Now if IND can prove to us tonight that they are not just another one-trick pony, we'd have a two-game loss column edge going into Friday's home game against the muck it up Knicks.

db

Damn Lebron a one man wrecking crew tonight. Barkley ripping Zion, pointing out he has only had 2 double- doubles all year. Tatum is a better rebounder than Zion.

Well it’s confirmed there are 2 young teams that can give us trouble. Pacers doing it again, beating Bucks despite big game from Giannis. The young team is so deep. Pacers and Magic could give us more trouble than Bucks and Heat.

Seems like Haliburton is on a mission, my biggest problem with the way he is going about things is, he is disrespecting the opposition. i guess he tried to make a fool out of Damion Lillard. Watch out kid, this may come back at some point to bite you in the rear. It was almost like Heild taking that last three pointer as the buzzer went off against the Celtics. There is an air about this team that i feel could eventually blow up. Haliburton is a great player, but….

cowens/oldschool wrote:Damn Lebron a one man wrecking crew tonight. Barkley ripping Zion, pointing out he has only had 2 double- doubles all year. Tatum is a better rebounder than Zion.

Well it’s confirmed there are 2 young teams that can give us trouble. Pacers doing it again, beating Bucks despite big game from Giannis. The young team is so deep. Pacers and Magic could give us more trouble than Bucks and Heat.

I love seeing these long suffering teams starting to shake things up - Minnesota, OKC, Orlando, Indy all have these talented young nuclei. Could even throw Denver in there, though they have obviously been good for awhile. I guess I'm a hypocrite in a way. I want the most successful franchise league history to continue to dominate, but I enjoy seeing the other major market/media darling teams being surpassed by these young, small market teams that the media mostly ignore.

Yeah, there's good news and bad news with IND not being a one-trick pony. They will be a true threat if they derail LeBron and the Lakers tomorrow night.

By beating MIL, IND gave us a two-game cushion in the East. Thank you. But now they become a potential derailer for ourselves come playoff time. If they wind up in the 5-8 slot, they are a possible 1st round matchup, and we may look like the Bucks of last year. If they land in the 1-4 slots, they would be a 2nd round matchup potentially. The bottom 4-8 plays after MIL, PHI and us aren't chump change. No sweeps and possibly an embarrassing end to a great season for someone or two.

IND needs to slow the LeBron role and give them a dose of reality. I'm watching it!

db